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Preview: The Newsroom Season Finale, “The Greater Fool”

by Charlie Harwood
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newsroom-jeff-daniels_510-300x170With nine episodes in the books, the season finale of The Newsroom will air on Sunday night at 10pm. Whether you’ve seen every episode, or been tuning in and out all season long, HBO’s official promo for the final episode, “The Greater Fools”, should have every viewer excited to see how the season will end. It’s no secret that The Newsroom received quite a lot of negative press for the first half of Season One. In fact, I was fairly critical of the show early on myself. Even though I still feel that the series needs major improvement in certain areas, I can’t deny that it has undoubtedly picked up steam and should make for an extremely thrilling season finale. The official trailer released by HBO gives a hint as to what viewers can expect to see in the last episode, and I have to say that it looks like quite the dramatic ending that this show desperately needs.

In the trailer, Mackenzie finds Will in a state of disarray; Don makes a desperate move; the gossip columnists’ return; Jim runs down the street; and Leona Lansing finally gets her revenge. What does this all mean? Well, it means that there are five very good reasons that the season finale of The Newsroom will be one to watch:

A Conclusion to the Maggie-Don-Jim-Lisa Love Circle

Newsroom-Maggie-300x209Most of my criticism from Season One has resulted from the outrageously detailed problems within Don and Maggie’s relationship. Throwing Jim and Lisa into the mix didn’t help much either and these issues have been brought up over and over again since the very first episode – often with no progress in the storyline whatsoever. That being said, I have to admit that I am actually interested to see what happens in the finale. The show has spent an enormous amount of time building up this love circle and, at this point, it almost seems destined to have a big impact on future episodes.

Charizma Makes a Move

Well, we just might find out who has been trying to kill Will in the Season Finale. The opening scene in the promo trailer shows Mackenzie searching for Will in his apartment, only to find him lying on the floor with what appears to be blood on the carpet. Was this an attempted hit by the internet troller Charizma? It certainly seems likely considering how last episode ended. The show has been beating around the bush with this plot for a few weeks now. We’ve seen Will’s bodyguard, Leon, with him at all times but nothing ever seems to happen. In order to gain information for a story, Neal posed as the guy who threatened Will’s life and it seems to have angered Charizma enough to finally make a move resulting in Will making visit to the hospital.

Sloane May Be Leaving ACN

Olivia-Newsroom-HOT-225x300One interesting detail from the promo I noticed was that Sloane tells Don she got a job offer. Over the past few episodes she obviously hasn’t been too happy with the state of affairs at ACN, so it’s not surprising that she would want to leave. Honestly, I think Sloane is one of the more interesting characters in the show and I wish the writers would develop her story more. She’s extremely intelligent, but doesn’t know how to stand up for herself (except in small outbursts of rage). Often times, she’s pushed around and her stories are moved to less desirable spots in the News Night’s lineup. I’m curious to find out where Sloane got a job offer from and whether or not she’ll take it. It would be nice to see her character gain some momentum.

Does Will Finally Forgive Mackenzie?

There’s no evidence from the trailer to suggest that this happens, but I feel like it should. The relationship between Mac and Will is way more interesting than the love splatter between the other members of the staff; but the writers have chosen not to spend nearly as much time on it. I thought throwing Brian into the mix was a great move as it created more drama and tension between the two of them. Personally, I hope Will comes a lot closer to forgiving Mac in the final episode. Maybe then he can finally stop punishing her day in and day out with his outrageous antics. I doubt he forgives her completely in the finale, but i’m hoping he at least comes close. They show has done an excellent job showing just how much these two need each other. It’s only fitting that they bury the hatchet eventually.

Leona Lansing Gets the Last Laugh

The season finale will mark a return of the gossip columnists who Will has made enemies with throughout Season One. This time, they have a scoop that Will was high (which he was) while delivering the report that Osama Bin Laden had been killed. Leona Lansing has been looking for an excuse to get rid of Will ever since he started blasting her buddies on Capitol Hill, and now she has the means to do it. However, Charlie certainly isn’t going to go down without a fight since he has a copy of sworn testimony detailing illegal hacking committed by the Atlantic World News’ tabloid TMI. The trailer for the finale abruptly ends with Leona saying “You’re fired!” to Will. Does she end up getting her revenge against News Night? Will Charlie be able to bring down Leona and her son for illegal wiretapping? I’m anxious to find out.

Here is the preview for Episode 10, “The Greater Fool”. Leave a comment and let us know what you want to see happen in the Season Finale of The Newsroom.

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12 comments

Jacob Klein August 28, 2012 - 3:51 pm

Love this show. I think next season will be even better.

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Jacob Klein August 31, 2012 - 11:17 am

Off the heels of some of the other comments above: If you hadn’t noticed by now HBO is catering to its audience: suburban, upper-middle-class liberals. I fall into that category as well. Some of the Newsroom is truth and some is fantasy. Sorkin says so himself:

https://hbowatch.com/aaron-sorkin-the-newsroom-is-fantasy/

Anyway, I don’t blame the show for taking artistic license. It has to be entertaining. If you watched the West Wing you’re aware of how these things work :)

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Mike Cope August 28, 2012 - 8:15 am

Despite the fact it is very entertaining it brings to light the hard core issues past and present. With the way the news was portrayed on current events it eloquently laid out exactly what has gone wrong with the Republican party. Religion has taken front and center on trying to control Americans by forcing religious beliefs into our laws. Comments are always made they want to take the country back. It isn’t their country it is everyone’s country and they are breaking every rule on separation of church and state.

If anyone criticizes the show it probably hit a cord to the root cause of our country’s problem. Truth hurts.

The show was great! I just wish our news was reported like that now.

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Charles Kaufman August 28, 2012 - 7:38 am

Sorry, but debate or civil discourse with the Tealiban is impossible. President Obama tried for three years and got only ignorance and hate. You cannot debate ideologues or fools. Ideologues refuse to listen and consider others pov, fools can’t. In any case the moderate, thoughtful republicans have been driven from the party or have caved to the clown posse that are in control.

You ignore the obvious and try and create a false equivalency.

Not all republicans are racist…however all racists are republican.

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Musa Mayer August 26, 2012 - 9:12 pm

A bit obvious at first, but getting steadily better, this series satisfies because it articulates a message Americans sorely need to hear…I was sorry to see the season end. If only the windmills this show is tilting at were imaginary. If only the facts and a dose of the founding fathers’ thinking had the power to change minds, and create the kind of informed electorate to which this show aspires.

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Charles Kaufman August 26, 2012 - 8:27 pm

I simply LOVE this show!

It is the fantasy of the Jon Stewart research team with Bill Maher as it’s serious news anchor… on steroids. I just wish it was an actual network show.

The insane, right wing has lost touch with reality and is acting as foot soldiers for the plutocratic takeover by the 1%. and most of the “real” news media are too cowardly to call a lie, a lie. I wish we could force the Tea party types to watch your show and film their heads exploding!

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Lori Kisling August 27, 2012 - 12:22 pm

I totally agree
The thing about so-called ,self-appointed “critics” reactions is that they were, in the main, hired by the Corporates with an eye toward who will agree with their agenda – which is Right Wing. Also in my experience, critics are overwhelmingly middle-brow mediocre intelligences with mediocre taste. That’s why there is so little on TV with the quality of The Newsroom. Intelligently conceived and executed TV doesn’t last long because the middle-brows always feel threatened by and hate it.
I knew this one would face stiff opposition. I PRAY it survives for a second season!

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Charles Kaufman August 28, 2012 - 5:35 am

Not sure why this didn’t take, ah well try try again.

“Great spirits will always be violently opposed by mediocre minds”
Albert Einstien

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G. Scott Baity August 27, 2012 - 8:10 pm

It’s not that the show is wrong in bashing the Tea Party and the many unreasonable aspects of the Republican Party and the “Right”, it’s just that it takes a pass at similarly pointing out the many unreasonable aspects of the Democratic Party and the “Left” — presumably due to the producers’ own political leanings. Instead of a voice for reason, compassion and tolerance, it comes off as merely another partisan voice. That’s unfortunate. I’m a reasonable, compassionate, tolerant, socially-liberal, fiscally-conservative Republican, and I like the main character see the faults in the Republican Party clearly…too bad the producers are too myopic to see or stubborn to admit the problems on the other side of the aisle. Instead of using their platform to bash the Right, the producers could use it to preach moderation and bash the intolerance on both sides. That’s the only disappointment with the show.

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Charles Kaufman August 28, 2012 - 5:29 am

The intolerance on the left? I would say it is more of a “I’ve had it with the lies and hypocrisy of the right and I’m not going to take it anymore” reaction. Trying to create a false equivalency only empowers the plutocrats and the racist dominated tea types.

That said, yes there are things to disappoint on the left… like leaving the same wall street crooks in charge of the economy, or the war in Iraq. However these pale in comparison to the ignorance, greed and hate of the “new” GOP.

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G. Scott Baity August 28, 2012 - 6:17 am

You make my point exactly…intolerance on the left. Instead of disagreeing with their ideaology (or lack thereof) and entering into a civil debate, the enlightened “left” (such as yourself) vilifies those with whom it disagrees just as vehemently as the “right”. Not all Republicans are ignorant, greedy or hateful (though some are), but it’s naive to argue that some of the Democrats aren’t, too.

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Jacob Klein August 31, 2012 - 11:31 am

I don’t really mind the right bashing when they deserve it. That’s sort of the point of the Newsroom. Anchors hold back punches for the sake of being “fair and balanced” when the TRUTH and facts are what really matter. But as a liberal I did sort of cringe at the straight up comparison to The Taliban to the tea party. I see the lines of logic but theyre pretty weak. Most people in the tea party at least genuinely believe their philosophy is best for the USA… terrorists just want to watch the world burn. Big difference there.

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